Fruit corporations from the US turned Honduras, an impoverished tropical backwater, into a huge banana plantation at the start of the 20th century. They dominated its economy and politics, making it the original "banana republic".

The US intervened in numerous military coups to protect its commercial interests, embedding a conservative, Americanised elite. Contra guerrillas backed by President Ronald Reagan used Honduras as a base to attack Nicaragua's Sandinista government in the 1980s.

The current US president, Barack Obama, showed a desire to end the "gringo bully" image by condemning the June coup which ousted the leftist leader, Manuel Zelaya. But the White House backtracked when congressional Republicans supported the de facto government as a bulwark against Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.

A power-sharing deal between Zelaya and the de facto rulers unravelled when the US said it would recognise Sunday's vote, even if Zelaya was not first reinstated, allowing the president's foes to dig in their heels.

"I'm disgusted by how rapidly the Democrats crumbled," said Julia Sweig, author of Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century. "The Republicans used Honduras to beat up the Obama administration. Latin Americans have gone from hating us to laughing at us."